by NINA LARAMORE

Staff Reporter

The deputy fire marshal position and the level of service Orcas residents want and need from the fire district drew heat from several members of the community at the Orcas Island Fire Commissioners meeting last week.

At a previous meeting, Chief Mike Harris had informed the commissioners of his desire to make the deputy fire marshal position on Orcas a non-exempt salaried position and expand the level of service delivered.

When San Juan County eliminated the county fire marshal position several years ago, Harris and the other fire chiefs offered to partially fund the position, which is responsible for code enforcement, building plan reviews, building inspections, fire prevention education and fire investigations. Currently, OIFR pays $15,000 for the countywide position or 42 percent of the total fire marshal program. The money comes in part from burn permits and business fire inspections and the rest comes out of the fire district budget. OIFR has always had an hourly position without benefits that regulated fire prevention activities such as burn permits. The deputy fire marshal reports to the county fire marshal but is paid for by OIFR.

Harris has proposed that the Orcas deputy fire marshal take over the inspection of Orcas businesses and residences to increase the number of inspections that are done and to work on enforcing the code violations and hazards that are found during those inspections. The additional $12,000 for the position will be partially paid for by the increased number of inspections, which have already doubled with the deputy marshal position. Harris wants to take over the program to enhance it. The position will be directed by the OIFR in coordination with the county fire marshal.

“The value added things we had gotten off the ground so far are fire safety training to business owners and their staff like on-site fire extinguisher training and using the thermal imaging camera to look for hot spots in the electrical panel,” Harris said.

“More than anything I look at this as a matter of safety,” he continued. “I worry about the safety provisions required by the fire code when people are at their most vulnerable, which is when they are asleep. People are coming to spend the night on Orcas and they are laying their heads down not knowing that the building they are in may not be safe. Businesses that have never been inspected before are now being inspected.”

While Harris wants to increase the level of fire safety in area businesses through the deputy fire marshal position, members of the public present questioned the need.

“We are reaching a level of service that is so far above our needs,” Walt Corbin said. “You are dedicated to providing the best in the world. There is not enough money in the world for the level of service you are trying to provide. We have equipment so specialized the only person who can fix it is a mechanic that has to be flown in from Las Vegas. If the community wants that level of service that’s fine but I don’t think we need it.”

Commissioner Clyde Duke responded that the mission statement and goals for OIFR came from the 1999 community-led long range planning sessions.

“We are letting the long range plan guide us,” Duke said. “We are here to save life and property. That’s the task we have been given. The county fell short on providing fire marshal services and are trying to do what we think is intelligent and feasible to provide for the public safety. We are creating a new deputy fire marshal program that is more focused on our island and provides continuity.”

The next fire district meetings will be a July 28 work session focused on the Deer Harbor station. The Aug. 11 regular meeting and the Aug. 25 work session are at the fire station at 7:30 p.m.